“We have drawn the elephant, now let us see if we can harness him up.” 

1854

• Theodore Judah is retained by the Sacramento Valley Railroad.  Charles Lincoln Wilson, president of the line, employs Judah to survey and develop a plan for the Sacramento Valley Railroad.  Judah has gained a reputation for railroad construction from building the Niagara Gorge Railroad and additional railroads in the East.  Judah confidently predicts that the route will ultimately extend over the Sierra Nevada.

1857

• After some preliminary visits to the mountains, Judah publishes “A Practical Plan for Building the Pacific Railroad,” a pamphlet describing his idea of a Sierra Nevada route for the railroad.  His wife, Anna, says that construction of the route so dominates his conversation that people remark that “Judah’s Pacific Railroad crazy.”

1860

• With the Sacramento Valley Railroad having difficulties, Judah focuses on his Sierra Nevada railroad route.  He will meet with Dr. Daniel Strong in Dutch Flat, California, about seventy miles east of Sacramento.  Strong has read Judah’s pamphlet and suggested an alternative route that avoids the treacherous and already existing Donner Summit route.  Strong will show Judah his route.  It provides a much gentler slope over the mountains that would be easier to construct.  At the very least, Judah envisions a profitable wagon road, but his dream of a railroad route still predominates.

• Judah will complete maps and survey documentation of the Sierra Nevada route at Dr. Strong’s store in Dutch Flat.

1861

• Judah convinces seven Sacramento investors to back his railroad plan. 

• The Central Pacific Railroad Company (CPRR) is incorporated on June 28, 1861.  Four of the investors will become the company officers.

• The four major investors who become the officers are:
• Leland Stanford, prominent grocery merchant and budding politician, is chosen as the CPRR President
• Collis P. Huntington, hardware merchant, is selected as CPRR Vice-President
• Mark Hopkins, Huntington’ partner, becomes CPRR Treasurer
• Charles Crocker, dry goods merchant, will serve as construction chief for the CPRR as the head of the CPRR Construction Company

• The four major investors become known as the “Big Four.”

• Stanford will be elected Governor of California in 1861.  He retains his position as CPRR President.

• In late 1861, Judah will lobby Congress for his planned route over the Sierra Nevada.  He will present his notes, maps, and drawings to interested congressional representatives.  Among his display items is a 90-foot map of the proposed course showing eighteen tunnels and 140 miles of track from Sacramento to Truckee.

• Survey crews fan out to the mountains.  Through 1863, these advance parties mark the planned route with wooden stakes.

1862

• On July 1, 1862, Congress passes the Pacific Railroad Act during the Civil War.  The legislation authorizes the construction of a transcontinental railroad.  Its author is Congressman Aaron A. Sargent, a resident of Nevada City. Sargent states, “…this railroad is a necessity … a great war measure.”  Judah comments:  “We have drawn the elephant, now let us see if we can harness him up.” 

• The Pacific Railroad Act promises land grants and federal construction loans once construction begins in earnest.  President Abraham Lincoln is an enthusiastic supporter.

• The act provides for loans of $16,000 a mile for construction over flatland and $48,000 per mile for construction in the Sierra Nevada. An 1863 survey conducted by the California State Geologist will conclude that the Sierra Nevada begins on the flatland just outside of Sacramento – 24 miles west of where the Sierra Nevada actually start.  This curious decision will net the CPRR more than $1 million in additional federal construction loans.

1863

• On January 8, 1863, ground is broken in Sacramento to inaugurate construction of the CPRR.  At the ceremony, Governor Leland Stanford grandly pronounces that Sacramento would soon resemble the marketplaces of the Far East, bustling with “the busy denizens of two hemispheres” who would traverse “the great highway of the nations.”

• Some grading commences.  The work is painstaking and careful, as trains of the era cannot negotiate sharp curves or inclines greater than two percent.

• The California legislature grants CPRR $10,000 for each mile of track laid within California.

• In April 1863, voters in San Francisco approve a bond issue providing $600,000 in cash for railroad construction.  Governor Stanford sends his brother Phillip to San Francisco to influence the vote.  He did so with sacks of company gold coins, which, according, to a statement, Phillip threw “by the handful among the voters, who gathered around him in crowds.”

• The first rails are laid at Sacramento on October 26, 1863.  Charles Crocker constructs a tiny depot on Sacramento’s riverfront. 

• Crocker, as president of the CPRR construction company, hires James H. Strobridge as Chief of Staff.  Strobridge quickly gains a reputation as a hard-nosed construction foreman who drives his work force with ruthlessness.

• The “Big Four” express doubts about the pace of construction.  They suggest that construction should slow to allow settlement to follow.  They also wonder whether the route can actually be built.  Charles Crocker states, “Oh Lord, it cannot be done.”

• On November 2, 1863, Theodore Judah dies of Yellow Fever while enroute to New York to secure additional financing for the CPRR.  Enraged at the “Big Four” attitudes and delays, Judah was trying to find funding to buy out his partners.  Judah was 37 years old.

1864

• By February 29, 1864, 18 miles of track had been laid to Roseville and Rocklin.  A roundhouse is built in Rocklin and granite from Rocklin quarries is utilized in construction.

• On June 6, 1864, the CPRR stretches to Newcastle, 31 miles from Sacramento.  CPRR prints a train schedule.

• Construction begins on the “Bloomer Cut,” a daunting engineering feat.  In order to maintain grade, an 800-foot long, 63-foot deep trench has to be dug through heavily compacted aggregate.

• Charles Crocker finds that his predominantly Irish work force is unreliable.  Some weary of the hard work, some threatened to strike, while others were abandoning the project to hunt for gold and silver.  Crocker suggests to Strobridge that Chinese workers be used.  Strobridge initially rejects the idea with a blunt remark.  “I will not boss Chinese,” he declares. However, Strobridge will relent when the CPRR becomes desperate for workers.  Crocker and Strobridge are soon impressed with the Chinese.  The Chinese are industrious and productive workers. They also eat healthy diets and are less prone to disease.  More and more Chinese are imported to work on the CPRR.  They came to be called “Crocker’s Pets.”

1865

• Chinese workers are used extensively in construction of the CPRR.  More than 90% of the work force used in construction will be Chinese. 

• The Bloomer Cut is completed.  A mistimed black powder explosion will lead to a serious injury for Superintendent Strobridge.  He will lose the sight of his right eye in the mishap. 

• By June 10, 1865, rails will reach Clipper Gap, 43 miles from Sacramento.

• On September 10, 1865, the CPRR will reach Colfax, 55 miles from Sacramento.

• Two miles from Colfax, the route rapidly gains elevation.  At Cape Horn, a roadbed is carved out of a cliff.  Reports indicate that the Chinese workers are dangled over the cliffs in wicker baskets to prepare the route with sledges, hand drills, and black powder.  According to these accounts, the Chinese set the fuses and were hauled out of harm’s way just before the explosions.  Recent studies indicate that these stories were journalistic exaggerations.  While the work was difficult and dangerous, the slopes in the region seem to indicate that the dangling aspect was not possible.  This conclusion does not diminish the accomplishment, however. Cape Horn was an engineering feat that cemented Strobridge’s faith in the Chinese.  No lives were lost in the construction of this section of the CPRR.

• Grading continues beyond Colfax.  On August 1, 1865, work begins on the most challenging tunnel of all – Tunnel Number 6.  This tunnel is more commonly known as the Summit Tunnel.

1866

• Tunnels are being constructed in the Sierra Nevada.  Carved out of solid granite, tunnel construction would slow progress to a few inches per day.

• CPRR starts 1866 with 54 miles of working track, stretching from Sacramento to Colfax.

• By early Spring 1866, the CPRR has 10,000 workers on the route.  This represents the largest work force in America.

• By July 1866, track extends to Dutch Flat, 70 miles from Sacramento.

• By November 9, 1866, CPRR tracks reach Cisco Station, 94 miles from Sacramento.

• East of the mountains, 50 miles of track were laid.  These tracks would be the leading edge of the rails that would ultimately meet the tracks being built by the Union Pacific, the company that was constructing the eastern section of the Transcontinental Railroad.

• Supplies and construction materials were racing to meet the demand in the mountains.  Often the supplies were forged in Eastern iron works and shipped around the tip of South America.  Hundreds of tons of rails, spikes, and ties were delivered to the construction site.  There were instances of supply trains crashing enroute to the end of the line.

• Slow progress in the tunnels, particularly the Summit Tunnel; lead Strobridge and Crocker to consider a controversial alternative to black powder explosives.  Nitroglycerin, recently developed in Italy and refined by Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel, was more powerful than black powder … but more dangerous as well.  Transporting Nitroglycerin was very dangerous – the slightest bump could cause an explosion.  In late 1866, Strobridge and Crocker hired British chemist James Howden to experiment with manufacturing Nitroglycerin at the Sierra Nevada construction sites.

• A muleskinner named Missouri Bill transports a 12-ton steam engine into the mountains.  He uses ten yokes of oxen and a specially designed, heavy-duty wagon.  The steam engine, called The Blue Goose, was used in the construction of the Summit Tunnel and to transport timbering used in the tunnels.

1867

• The harsh winter of 1866 – 1867 dumps tons of snow on the CPRR route.  Mark Hopkins commented:  “Snow prevents work about 5 – 6 months in the year, so we need to get it done this season if possible…. We’re pushing hard.”

• Snow damaged completed rails and trestles.  Supplies were difficult to deliver.  Many workers were employed just in shoveling tracks.  Avalanches killed workers.  Sadly, the number and names of Chinese workers killed was frequently not recorded.  Surveyor J.O. Wilder reported “At our camp the snow was so deep we had to shovel it from the roof and make steps to get to the top.  We were snowed in, and our provisions got down to corn meal and tea.  Had it lasted one week longer we would have been compelled to eat horse meat.”

• In order to counteract the snow, the CPRR bring in snowplows.  The first snowplow was 30 feet long and front weighted.  The plow would back up and take a running start at the snowdrift. The idea was to burst through the drift.  However, the snowplow often became stuck in the heavy Sierra snow, which was later nicknamed “Sierra Cement.”  Later snowplows used a more efficient and effective rotary system to remove the snow.

• Another response to the snow was the construction of snow sheds along the route.  These sheds would provide protection in the most vulnerable sections of the track.  One snow shed was 29 miles long.  It was nicknamed “The House Without End.”  Von Nostrand’s Engineering Magazine described the snow sheds in 1870:  “They sloped the roof sustained by massive timbers and stayed with braces laid into the rock, covered by heavy planks against the precipice so that descending earth or snow would be shot clean over the safely housed tracks into the tree tops below.  They have conquered the snow.”

• When the snow began to melt, workers made some progress.  Tunneling continued in the mountains and further track was constructed east of the mountains along Nevada’s Humboldt River.

• On June 25, 1867, the Chinese workers went on strike.  Despite their importance to the project, the Chinese were paid less than other workers and were treated with discrimination.  However, their reputation as hard workers spurred other companies to hire the Chinese work force away from the CPRR.  CPRR raised their monthly wage to $35, but the Chinese demanded $40.  On June 25, 1867, the Chinese struck.  The CPRR cut off supplies to the Chinese and then sent a posse to intimidate the workers.  The CPRR tactic worked and the Chinese returned to work.  They were paid the newly offered  $35 rate, however.  Charles Crocker commented:  “If there had been that number of whites in a strike, there would have been murder, drunkenness and disorder …. But with the Chinese, it was just like Sunday …. No violence was perpetrated along the whole line.”

• On August 28, 1867, the Summit Tunnel is completed.  The other tunnels through the Sierra Nevada were finished in 1867 also, but the Summit Tunnel was the most difficult to complete.  The tunnel, known as Tunnel Number 6, began construction in 1865.   A twenty-foot high borehole through 1659 feet of solid granite, the Summit Tunnel was built at the 7000-foot elevation and was 124 feet below Donner Summit.  Work at both ends was agonizingly slow, with progress measured in inches, even though Nitroglycerin was now commonly used for blasting. Construction was complicated by the hardness of the granite and a seemingly endless series of snowstorms.  When the tunnel was completed in 1867, the builders discovered that the two construction “starting points” at each end were off by only two inches. 

• On December 13, 1867, the CPRR construction crews cross the California-Nevada stateline.

• By the end of 1867, completed tracks connect all the tunnels in the Sierra Nevada.

1868

• Tracks are completed to Truckee by April 3, 1868.

• On May 4, 1868, CPRR rails reach the newly founded community of Reno, Nevada, which is 154 miles from Sacramento.

• On June 18, 1868, the first passenger train arrives in Reno from Sacramento.

• By July 22, 1868, tracks are completed to Wadsworth, Nevada, 189 miles from Sacramento.

• By 1868, fifty-one CPRR locomotives are carrying passengers and freight over the Sierra Nevada.  However, there is only one track and no effective warning system.  Stopped trains could be invisible around a bend and accidents were waiting to happen.  Once notice had been given that a train had to stop, it could take more than a half-mile to bring the train to a safe stop.From Wadsworth, Nevada, to Promontory, Utah, is a distance of 501 miles.  The CPRR construction spanned this distance from July 1868 to May 1869.

• In August 1868, Mormon laborers from Utah completed most of the grading.  Chinese workers laid the tracks.  Surveyor Lewis Clement remarked “water was scarce after leaving the Truckee and Humboldt Rivers …. There was not a tree that would make a board on over 500 miles of the route, no satisfactory quality of building stone.  The country offered nothing.”

• A problem arises as it is discovered that the CPRR and Union Pacific have not agreed to a point to connect each end of the Transcontinental Railroad.

1869

• On April 8, 1869, after grading past each other for miles, the two competing railroad companies agree to meet at Promontory Summit in Utah.

• A “Miles Per Day” contest enlivens construction in the desert.  After the CPRR had laid six miles of track on one day, the Union Pacific responded by placing seven miles of track in one day.  On April 28, 1869, the CPRR won the contest by putting down an astonishing ten miles of track in one day.

• A completion ceremony is scheduled for the first week of May 1869, but a washed-out bridge delays the arrival of Union Pacific officials by two days.

• On May 10, 1869, the Union Pacific Engine No. 119 and the CPRR engine Jupiter meet at Promontory, Utah, and the Transcontinental Railroad is completed.

• Dignitaries from both railroad companies and other officials attended the “Golden Spike” Ceremony concluding the construction.  The Pacific Railroad Act had required that telegraph lines be erected alongside the track.  Telegraph operator W.N. Schilling kept the nation informed of the ceremony.  He signaled other operators down the line “When the last spike is driven at Promontory Point, we will say ‘Done!’  Don’t break the circuit, but watch for the signals of the blows of the hammer.”

• An eighteen-ounce solid gold spike was to be used for the ceremony.  Inscribed with the words, “The Last Spike,” it was donated by San Francisco real estate developer David Hewes.  Fitted with a telegraph wire, the spike was placed in a predrilled hole.  CPRR President Leland Stanford would tap the spike into the hole using a silver hammer.  Much laughter ensued when Stanford missed the spike on his first attempt.  Successful on his second try, Schilling tapped out “Done!” on the telegraph line.  A railroad worker described the scene simply:  “We all yelled like to bust.”  It was done.  The Liberty Bell was rung in Philadelphia and parades and fireworks occurred throughout the nation.

• Anna Judah, the widow of Theodore Judah, was not at the ceremony. No one thought to invite her.  She remained at home in Greenfield, Massachusetts.  May 10th was not only the day the railroad was completed, but her wedding anniversary as well.  Recalling that day, Anna wrote later:  “It seemed the spirit of my brave husband descended on me, and together we were there.”

• Stanford kept the “Golden Spike” after the ceremony and it now resides in a museum at Stanford University.

• From the beginning of construction in 1863 until completion in 1869, the CPRR had constructed 742 miles of line from Sacramento, California, to Ogden, Utah.

Image Credits:

Theodore Judah portrait- Collections of the California State Library
Sierra Construction– Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
The Chinese - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Title “Harnessing the Elephant” picture - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Stock certificate - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
CPRR’s first locomotive - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Snow Sheds  – From Charles R. Wood, Northern Pacific (Seattle: Superior Publishing, 1968)
Snowplow - From Charles R. Wood, Northern Pacific (Seattle: Superior Publishing, 1968)
Colfax Station  – From Rev. Samuel Manning, American Pictures, c. 1875
Cisco Station – From Rev. Samuel Manning, American Pictures, c. 1875
Winter in the Sierra Nevada – From Rev. Samuel Manning, American Pictures, c. 1875
Sacramento – First Depot – Collections of Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park, Sacramento, California
Big Four - Charles Crocker - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Big Four - Hopkins - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Big Four – Huntington - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Big Four – Stanford - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Golden Spike Ceremony - Collections of the California State Library
Rocklin Roundhouse - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Rocklin Granite Quarry - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Train Schedule - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Bloomer Cut  - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Truckee - Collections of the California State Library
Completion Poster – Collections of the Sacramento Historic Landmarks Commission
Across the Nevada Desert - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation
Aaron A. Sargent – Library of Congress, United States Senate Collection
Judah’s Map – Library of Congress
Cape Horn – Collections of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
James Strobridge – National Park Service
Dr. Strong’s Store - Historical Collections of Union Pacific Railroad Corporation